Archive for January 2012

In which Mr. Murphy and I do a dance, and I invent a new game

Monday, January 30, 2012

It all started innocently enough. My wife noticed me staring into space with a distant look in my eye and asked what I was doing.

“Well, I’m trying to come up with a topic for the next blog,” I said.

She replied, “Why don’t you go for something that is just pure fun?”

I looked out at the growing twilight. January in upstate New York and still no snow on the ground . . . hmmm . . . I know: a BB gun, some BBs and some tin cans! Tomorrow I’ll go outside and see how much fun it is to bounce some cans around the yard. With steel BBs, I don’t have to be concerned about capturing lead pellets. I bet it will be a blast!

At this point, if I had been listening carefully, I could have heard Mr. Murphy sniggering in the background. Who’s Mr. Murphy? Why, the owner and originator of Murphy’s Law. Murphy’s Law was explained to me some years ago in a concise volume entitled The Official Explanation. Published by the Murphy Institute for the Codification of Human Behavior, it explains, in pithy aphorisms, why things so often turn out so badly.

Here’s what you need to know. Murphy’s Law: If anything can go wrong, it will. Murphy’s Law 1st Corollary: Even if nothing can go wrong, it still will. Murphy’s Law 2nd Corollary: When it goes wrong, it will do so at the worst possible time and place. There are a lot of other corollaries, but those are the basics.

So by now I rather imagine you are ahead of me. Do you know what awaited me the following morning when I went out to knock some cans around with a BB gun? Of course you do. Snow, about an inch of it. Murphy clearly had me in his sights. Undeterred, I set up the cans and a margarine tub as you see them below.

I then shot at them with two different BB guns: a Daisy Model 25 Pump Gun and a Model 105 Buck. I chose those two BB guns because there is a substantial velocity difference between the two (the Model 25 launches BBs at around 350 fps and the Model 105 manages a more sedate 275 fps), and I wasn’t sure which one would work better to get good “action” out of the cans.

The cans (and margarine tub) ready to be "danced" around the yard.

The answer, it turns out, was . . . neither. Try as I might with either gun, I could not get the cans to dance merrily about the yard. In fact, it was a bit of a struggle to even knock them over, a task at which the Model 25 did better than the Model 105. Both guns punched holes in the margarine tub but it wouldn’t dance or bounce around at all.

The cans, resolutely refusing to dance.

Okay, I said to myself, what I need is a lighter, more responsive target . . . I need to go shopping! So I took myself to the local big box store and wandered the aisles with a wild gleam in my eye, looking for Things to Shoot. Ten minutes into the mission I found it: a mesh wire basket containing 48 foam practice golf balls. They were even brightly colored so they would show up against the snow. I bet these would dance when given the Daisy treatment! With a fiendish chuckle, I headed for the checkout line.

My purchase.

The gray haired gentleman at the register greeted me. “You’ve got the right idea,” he said.

“Whaddya mean?” I asked.

“Golf practice,” he said, “I can’t wait.”

Glancing furtively about, I said, “You know what I’m going to do with these? Shoot ‘em . . . with a BB gun.” “I’m a writer,” I added, as if that explained something.

He gave me a dubious look and rang up my bucket of balls. Still eying me somewhat suspiciously, he handed me my purchase. “Your targets, sir,” he said.

I raced home, tore open the package, and a thought occurred: I would spread some of the practice balls on the ground, lay the empty bucket on its side, and try to shoot the balls so that they would bounce into the bucket. What a great idea! I could call the resulting game “BB Gun Golf.”

Well, the theory might have been great, but the execution was not. No matter what the angle, hitting the practice golf balls with BBs did little more than drive the practice balls deep into the snow where they burrowed like groundhogs waiting for spring. I said several of the more interesting short words. Clearly Mr. Murphy was still hot on my trail.

Shooting the foam practice golf balls on the snow covered grass only drove them into hibernation.

Maybe my idea would work on snowy concrete front walk at El Rancho Elliott . . . and it did. The practice balls would indeed leap into the air when struck by a BB. I even managed to bounce one into the bucket.

On the snow-covered sidewalk, I managed to pop one of the balls into the bucket.

Even better, a couple of days later what little snow we had melted, and I found the balls were even more responsive when there was no snow to restrain them.

It worked even better without the snow.

So I give you, for your earnest and prayerful consideration: BB gun golf. Get yourself some practice golf balls, a bucket, and see if you can knock the balls into the bucket by shooting them with BBs. Make sure everyone involved wears eye protection because the BBs can bounce at crazy angles. For that same reason, you probably shouldn’t play next to your uncle’s newly restored vintage Ferrari.

Here's what you need for BB gun golf. Enjoy!

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

-          Jock Elliott

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FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber – Part II

Monday, January 23, 2012

The left side of the FX Royale 200 .25 caliber

To ready the FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber for shooting, attach the filling probe to your high pressure pump or SCUBA tank and charge the reservoir to 200 BAR.

Now it’s time to load the magazine. Begin by turning the transparent lid to the magazine counterclockwise until it stops. Put one pellet in the open slot on the rear (black) side of the magazine so that the tip of the pellet is pointing out of the hole. This locks the magazine spring in place.

Next, turn the magazine so that the transparent lid is facing you. Turn the lid clockwise one slot at a time and fill the slots with pellets with the tip of the pellets facing into the hole. When all the slots have been filled, slide the lid back into its starting position.

The left side of the receiver.

Pull the bolt lever all the way back and insert the magazine, black side toward the muzzle, into the breech from the right side. Helpful hint: make sure the scope mounts are high enough that no part of the scope interferes with the magazine sliding fully into place. If you are purchasing a FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber and scope from Airguns of Arizona, they can recommend the proper height scope rings.

Now you are ready to go. Push the bolt forward, flick off the safety, and squeeze the trigger. The first stage required only 11.1 ounces of pressure on the sample that I tested. At 1 lb. 5.3 oz., the shot went down range. This is an excellent trigger that is a pleasure to shoot.

NOTE: The section below has been corrected. I had the wrong shot string. JE

FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber launches 31.1 gr. H&N Barracuda pellets at average of  800fps, or 44.20  foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle and will deliver 35 usable shots from a fill. Even with the shrouded barrel, there is a significant POP when the shot goes off, but it is not nearly as raucous as one would typically expect from a .25 caliber PCP generating this kind of power. This is clearly not the best choice for stealthy plinking in the back yard without disturbing the neighbors, but for a hunting gun it is just fine.

 

One other thing I notice while shooting the FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber is that this air rifle is generating enough power that you can actually start to feel some recoil when the shot goes off. Not some heavy-handed slam in the shoulder, but a gentle push that reminds you that Sir Isaac Newton was right: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. You don’t put .25 caliber pellets down range with the kind of power that this rifle generates without getting some push in the opposite direction.

Like all FX air rifles that I have tested, the FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber delivers the goods when it comes to accuracy. At 30 yards from a casual rest with JSB Jumbo pellets, I put 5 shots into a group that measured just .625 inch edge to edge. That works out to well under half an inch center to center.

The FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber is a powerful, handsome air rifle that does everything well. I think any air rifle hunter would be pleased to own one.

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

-          Jock Elliott

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FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber – Part I

Monday, January 16, 2012

The FX Royale 200 Synthetic .25 caliber is handsome and powerful.

FX airguns enjoy a well-deserved reputation for excellence and accuracy, and the FX Royale 200 Synthetic in .25 caliber is no exception. It is a big airgun – 45.5 inches from end to end – that weighs just 6.7 lbs. and delivers a tremendous wallop, nearly 44 foot-pounds at the muzzle.

The butt pad is adjustable vertically.

Starting at the extreme aft end of the .25 Royale, you’ll find a black rubber butt pad that is adjustable vertically. Just loosen a screw and slide the butt pad up or down to meet your need. The butt pad is attached to an ambidextrous matte black synthetic stock that has a raised comb, cheek piece on either side, and a pronounced thumb notch.

Here's the trigger, breech, and magazine.

Forward of the butt stock, the pistol grip is flared at the end and has ribbing on either side. Moving forward again, the matte black synthetic material of the stock forms a trigger guard that surrounds a black metal trigger. The trigger is adjustable for first stage length of pull, second stage weight of pull, and, if you have tinkered with the trigger adjustments, the safety catch adjustment. The manual warns that “Failure to adjust this screw (the safety catch adjustment) after altering the trigger can result in a non-functioning safety.”

Just ahead of the trigger guard is an allen head bolt that holds the receiver in the stock, and forward of that is a black and white air pressure gauge that is about 7/8 of an inch in diameter. Beyond that, the forestock is relatively unadorned, except for ribbing molded into the polymer on either side.

The air reservoir protrudes nearly a foot beyond the end of the forestock. At the end of air reservoir is a port into which a filling probe is inserted for charging the reservoir. This is the only thing about the .25 Royale that I didn’t like. I personally prefer that air reservoirs be equipped with male Foster fittings. In my experience, they work pretty well, providing a quick and secure connection for filling PCP airguns. I don’t understand why a special filling probe was required but then again I am not an airgun engineer, just an airgun shooter.

Above the reservoir is the fully shrouded barrel. The shroud stretches 25.5 inches from muzzle to where it meets the receiver, but the specifications say that the .25 caliber barrel itself, which is inside the shroud, measures 23.6 inches.

At the aft end of the shroud is the receiver, finished in shiny black with white lettering. On top of the receiver, forward and aft of the breech, are dovetails for mounting a scope. In the middle of the receiver is the breech, which is just barely deep enough to allow loading single pellets by hand and which allows the 11-shot self-indexing .25 caliber rotary magazine to be slid into place.

On the right hand side of the receiver, you’ll find the toggle-action bolt. You cock the action and ready it for the next shot by pulling it full back and then sliding it fully forward again. It’s smooth and easy. Just below the aft end of the cocking lever is the safety.

That’s all there is to the FX Royale 200 Synthetic in .25 caliber. It’s a handsome air rifle with a utilitarian and purposeful look about it. As a .25 caliber, it is most likely to be used as a hunting rifle, and I like that there is no wood to worry about scratching or damaging with moisture. This is a serious tool designed to withstand inclement conditions without serious concern.

Next time, we’ll take a look at how the FX Royale 200 Synthetic in .25 caliber shoots.

Til then, aim true and shoot straight.

-          Jock Elliott

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How Airguns of Arizona preps guns before you get them

Monday, January 9, 2012

I came upon the subject for this blog quite by accident, and it was all my fault.

A while back I had been whining to Greg, my chief contact at Airguns of Arizona, about how winter was coming in big, bad upstate New York, and if the winter was anything like last year, there was going to be a period – maybe a long period — when I would be unable to test airguns. So would they please – please, please, PLEASE! – send me some guns to test in a big hurry!

Here's the reason for the whining: this is what El Rancho Elliott looked like after the first storm in January 2011.

And just to prove that I am not psychic in any way, here is approximately the same view on Jan. 2 of 2012.

Greg, being an excellent fellow, in great haste dispatched a large package containing several guns, which I then proceeded to test. When I got to the last gun, disaster struck. The bolt would not cycle properly, after which I could not get the fully loaded magazine out of the breech.

So here I was with a fully loaded, fully charged PCP air rifle that I could not unload. This makes me really uncomfortable, and I was borderline freaking out when I called AoA and got Shane on the line. He immediately gave me the procedure for getting the magazine out of the breech. I tried it, and it worked. Next, Shane wanted me to run a cleaning rod down the barrel to make sure that that there wasn’t a pellet jammed in there.

Dutifully, I slid the rod down the barrel and a mashed pellet and a machined brass cylinder came out. I reported this to Shane (we were doing this in real time on the phone), and he said, “Oh, you must have a gun that wasn’t prepped.”

“Wasn’t prepped,” I said. “Whaddya mean?”

“We prep almost every air rifle we ship,” Shane said. “You need to talk to Darren. He’s our primary prep guy.”

So I interviewed Darren, and what follows is the real and true story of how Airguns of Arizona preps air rifles before you get them.

When it comes to prepping precharged air rifles, the first is the removal of any special fittings that are attached to the gun for shipping. Some PCPs have a barrel plug and a special restrictor screw that are fitted so that the gun can be legally exported from the country of origin. (The barrel plug is what I ran into when the magazine jammed in the gun.)

After any shipping fittings are removed, the gun is visually inspected for any dings or pressure marks in the stock, any rust, signs of damage, any molding issues on synthetic stocks.

Here's Darren prepping a gun for a customer.

“After that,” Darren says, “we test most precharged guns for accuracy and velocity.” (There are some exceptions to this: there are some models that come shipped in well-sealed factory packaging, and AOA allows the manufacturer/distributor to deal with any quality issues on these models. It is too easy for a customer to confuse AOA’s testing with supplying of a used gun due to the torn packaging.)

“We’ll mount a scope and benchrest the gun at 18 yards,” he says. “If the customer is purchasing a scope with the gun, we’ll mount the customer’s scope and sight it in. We’ll test up to five different pellets to find the best pellets for that gun, and we’ll generally test with a heavy pellet to make sure that it is generating the proper amount of foot pounds.”

If there is a problem with the accuracy of the gun, AoA investigates why – looking for problems like perhaps a bad barrel or clipping issues. AoA will also hold up shipment on a gun if there is a dramatic spread in velocities. When everything checks out properly, Darren will print out chronograph receipt and the test target, sign off on the gun, and include those with the gun as it is shipped to the customer.

All spring-piston air rifles are tested for velocity, usually for 5-10 shots to make sure that it is consistent. “We don’t generally test for accuracy,” Darren says, “but if a customer buys a scope with their springer, we will mount it, sight it in, and shoot a five-shoot group with it.”

He adds, “I test so many airguns that very often I will know if there is an issue with a gun simply by the way it sounds and feels when I shoot it. Sometimes when we’re shipping several of the same model gun, I’ll test them side-by-side to give me an additional check on quality and consistency.”

With the exception of a few isolated models, Airguns of Arizona routinely preps the air rifles it sends to customers – at no additional charge. “It makes sense to do that,” Darren says. “It ensures customer satisfaction, reduces hassles at our end, and, if a gun arrives at a customer with a problem, we know that something happened to it between here and there.”

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

Jock Elliott

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Daystate Huntsman Classic XL – Part II

Monday, January 2, 2012

It shoots as good as it looks!

To get the Daystate Huntsman Classic XL ready to shoot, remove the cap at the end of the air reservoir, attach a high pressure pump or SCUBA tank, and charge the reservoir up to 230 BAR maximum.

To remove the 10-shot magazine from the breech, first apply the safety catch. Next, lift the bolt handle at the rear of the breech block and pull it all the way back until fully cocked. Next move the bolt forward just a little bit until you feel a click. Now the magazine can be removed. (If you attempt to remove the magazine before you feel the click, it won’t work.)

There is a lot to like about the Huntsman Classic, but one of the things that I particularly like is the 10-shot rotary magazine. It is, hands down, the easiest to load magazine currently available. There is no twisting of top plates, no dropping in pellets to lock the top plate in place, no clicking your heels and saying “there’s no place like home.”

The magazine is super easy to load.

Instead, all you have to do is drop a pellet head-first into the large hole at the bottom of the backside of the magazine. You have to make sure that the pellet head slips past the o-ring that circles the perimeter of the pellet ring, and sometimes I use the tip of a ballpoint pen to give the pellet a quick poke to do that. Next rotate the pellet ring counter-clockwise to bring the next empty bay in line with the loading port and drop in another pellet. Frankly, it takes longer to describe the procedure than to do it. Continue this one click at a time until all 10 pellets has been loaded. When the magazine is full, slide it back into position in the breech block and return the bolt forward to the closed and locked position. Now you’re good to go.

Take aim at the target, flick the safety off, and start to squeeze the trigger. On the sample that I tested, the first stage required only 9.6 ounces of pressure. At about 1 pound 4.4 ounces, the shot goes off.

The Huntsman Classic XL launches JSB .177 Heavy 10.3 grain pellets at an average of 904 fps, making average energy 18.77 foot pounds. In addition, because of the extra large (that’s what the XL stands for) air reservoir, it delivers over 55 shots on a fill (see the curve below.)  Peak velocity is 918 fps, for 19.35 foot pounds of energy.

The XL produces a surprisingly subdued report. It is by no means completely silent, but it is not nearly as loud as I expected. There is some shrouding in the barrel, which helps to quiet the XL, but the main reason for the relatively quiet report is the Steve Harper designed “slingshot” valve. This patented valve design eliminates the hammer bounce that plagues so many other pre-charged, CO2, and multi-stroke air rifles and air pistols that store gas under pressure and employ a knock-open valve.

Here’s how hammer bounce happens.  When the airgunner triggers the shot, the hammer hits the valve and knocks it open. The very next thing that happens is that the compressed gas inside the reservoir acts like a spring and pushes the valve shut, often with enough force to drive the hammer back off the valve. The hammer then slams back down on the valve and pops the valve open again. When this happens, the gun wastes air (or CO2) and makes a louder report than necessary. Even worse, hammer bounce does absolutely nothing useful, since the pellet has already left the barrel when the hammer bounce occurs.

Because Harper slingshot valve prevents hammer bounce, it produces performance comparable to a computerized Daystate air rifle – including efficient use of air, a very high number of shots per charge, a flat power curve, an ultra-fast firing cycle and a relatively quiet muzzle discharge. As effective as the slingshot system is, it’s also remarkably simple and, therefore is backed by a three-year warranty.

The Huntsman delivers the kind of accuracy that I have come to expect from Daystate air rifles. At 30 yards, under far less than ideal conditions, the XL put five shots into a group you could easily cover with a dime. I expect that, under ideal conditions, it will deliver similar sized groups at 50 yards.

The Daystate Huntsman Classic XL has just about everything any serious airgunner would want: excellent accuracy, high efficiency, a very nice trigger, and a reasonable report . . .  and those good looks don’t hurt either. Who wouldn’t be pleased with an air rifle like that?

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.

- Jock Elliott

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